KARMELLA TSEPKOLENKO was born in 1955 (Odesa). She graduated from the P. S. Stoljars’ky Odesa State Special Secondary Music School as a pianist (Prof. H. Buchyns’kyj, lecturer O. Pannikova) and as a composer (Prof. A. Kogan). She continued her education at the Odesa State A. V. Nezhdanova Conservatoire (now National Music Academy) as a composer under Prof. O. Krasotov and as a pianist with Prof. L. Ginzburg (1979). She got her PhD at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute (with Prof. G. Tsypin).

She visited composers’ master-courses in Germany at Darmstadt in 1992 and 1994, and at Bayreuth in 1993). She has been awarded diplomas and prizes at Soviet All-Union and international composers’ competitions. She has received creative residences, grants and scholarships from the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Germany, 1995), DAAD (Germany, 1996), Brahms-Haus Foundation (Germany, 1996), the ArtsLink scholarship from the International Renaissance Foundation (Ukraine) and National Endowment for the Arts of the USA (New York, USA, 1996), and resident grants from the Künstlerhof Schreyahn (Germany, 1998), Worpswede Künstlerhäuser (Germany, 2000), Die Höge (Germany, 2002, 2003). The International Renaissance Foundation (Ukraine), KulturKontakt Association (Austria) and Pro Helvetia (Switzerland) granted her creative and cultural projects. She is the composer of over 100 works, most of which have been released over 12 CDs, and performed via radio in many countries.

She is the founder and Artistic Director of the annual International Festival of Modern Art Two Days and Two Nights of New Music (Odesa), and she is the initiator, a founder and the Head of the Board of the International Public Organization Association New Music – the Ukrainian Section of International Society of Contemporary Music/ISCM. She is a professor of composition at Odessa National A. V. Nezhdanova Music Academy, Secretary of the Board of the National Ukrainian Composers’ Union (since 2005). She was awarded the B. Ljatoshyns’kyj Prize (2001), and titled the Honoured Arts Worker of Ukraine (2006). Knight of the Order of the Chapter of the Journal "Yi" (2012), Laureate of the "Honorary Award" of the Head of the Odessa Regional State Administration (2014),), Presidential Scholarship for Cultural Figures 2018-2020, 2021-2023. Municipal Award "Cultural Capital" of the Odesa City Council (2019), Diploma from the First President of Ukraine L. Kravchuk (July, 2019) and the Order "Guardian of Ukraine" (2019).